Monday, January 28, 2008

Diaper dandies!

So, I really love my Lead Team! That is definetely not a glib remark, for all you skeptics out there. Yesterday after service we 'retired' to my house for our first Lead Team Retreat of the year. We started at 1.00pm and finally dragged ourselves away from the meeting at 8.00pm. The meeting rocked and we got so much done. All our team building and communication exercises went fabulously well, and we came up with so many great ideas on what we can do to better serve our community and the amazing people at The Well. We also came up with some great ideas about what we need to stop doing! As if just having a great meeting wasn't enough, there was great food too (what's a gathering of Christians without food worth?) which, sadly we couldn't do much justice to since we have only recently come off our 21-day Daniel fast and so our stomachs have shriveled quite a bit.


The thing I love most about my team is not the fact that they are godly, gifted people, which they most certainly are. Many of them are great speakers, and they all possess tremendous spiritual gifts. What I really admire though, is their servant hearts. Their gift of serving and hospitality is unparallelled. We are a mobile church that sets up and tears down a pretty elaborate set every weekend. They do it without complaining. They sweep floors, lug heavy equipment, make sure bathrooms and common areas we use are cleaner after we're done than they were when we came into the building... the list goes on and on.

Servant Leadership models Jesus. To look more like Jesus isn't only about preaching great messages, or demonstrating spiritual gifts. Sometimes, it's simply changing a dirty diaper, picking up the trash strewn all over the floor after service, or simply just leaving the facility in much better condition than we found it. My Team gets that! They can tell the difference between exercising their spiritual gifts and just plain servanthood, and they excel at both!
What are the things that strike you as being the difference between spiritual gifts and serving? Do you even think they are different?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since spiritual gifts were given for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God, and serving is how we use them, I don't feel there is a big difference. The problem can be that many will limit their service to their area of spiritual gifting. Jesus healed and cast out demons; He preached and encouraged but He also washed the feet of His disciples. What better example of service. In this case, humility is the gift of service.

Me said...

Jesus exercised both; He served selflessly and gave of himself completely. As if that wasn't enough, He went on further by performing miracles. Our "gifts" are meant to grow and edify the church but service can be for anyone.

Me said...

I agree! The meeting was so much fun and we accomplished so much!